FRESH INK . selected new arrivals
Singapore: SNP Reference, c2006.
Call No.: SING 299.51 CHA
Click here for item availability.
If you are monolingual English-ed like me, Singapore’s Chinese folk religion is largely a closed, unreadable book. You may assemble small disjointed paragraphs, but you cannot get any real sense of the culture. What you get is a fragmented, distorted view that is more informed by prejudices than by reality.
I’m not claiming that Margaret Chan’s new book, Ritual is Theatre, Theatre is Ritual: Tang-ki: Spirit Medium Worship, is comprehensive or authoritative (in folk religion, change and individualism are the only constants which means that nobody can ever hope to define practices or beliefs), it’s just a very useful resource that discusses tangkis or spirit mediums. Coupled with discussions on the Taoism-Singapore list, I am now begining to understand the meanings behind the practices.
If you want to get an idea of tangkis, crossing peace bridges, and the various gods, this is about the only contemporary book on the subject in English. Published by the Wee Kim Wee Centre, I got my copy from Select Books at Tanglin Shopping Centre.
Interestingly, I found that her PhD (Ritual is Theatre, Theatre is Ritual: Tang-ki: Spirit Medium Worship. Royal Holloway, University of London, 2001) on which the book is based on has an accompanying video (Ritual is Theatre, Theatre is Ritual: Tang-Ki Spirit Medium Worship, 2001). A copy of the video is kept at the Centre for Performance Research Resource Centre in Aberystwyth, Wales.
[HBeditor: There's gonna be a book launch for this book on 3rd May. More info here.]
Contributed by Timothy Pwee, Reference Librarian, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library
Have you read this book? What do you think?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Apr 22, 2006 at 11:05 am
Not sure whether they are defined as “tang-kis” but I’ve noticed a group of people dressed as gods from the Chinese pantheon, visiting the Guan Yin temple on certain occasions. They appeared to be in a trance-like state during the ritualistic procession, but to an “unbeliever” like myself, it seemed more performative rather than unnervingly spriritual.
2 Ivan Chew // Apr 22, 2006 at 2:04 pm
I recall people saying “Tiao Tang-ki” (i.e. jump into trance) and only in last 5 years I’ve seen 2 of such rituals ‘live’, although from a distance ‘cos I happened to pass by. The modern mediums appeared to be rather tame compared to a documentary I’d watched as a child, where the mediums really went into trances and seemed impervious to boiling oil, fire, sharp knives and objects. It was scary watching the documentary as a child but now I’ve to admit there’s some morbid fascination to it. I wonder if it’s the same video that Tim mentioned.
3 SgTaoism.com // May 12, 2006 at 2:40 am
It’s great to see someone writing on the subject of Tang-ki, it is a great way to pass on more knowledge of this subject to young taoists and anyone who want to know more about what Tang-ki is all about, I am looking forward to see more books on taoism being published.
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